Known is a burner comprising, coaxially disposed in a housing, a tubular electrode, a nozzle having an axial through hole, a removable rod-shaped electrode arranged in a rod-shaped electrode holder coaxially within the tubular electrode at a gap with respect to said electrode and to the nozzle to enable the formation of a discharge chamber and to enable the axial reciprocating movement, a dielectric tube mounted on the electrode holder, a means for the contact excitation of an electric arc between the nozzle and the rod-shaped electrode, said means being made in the form of an interrupting electric contact and including a mechanism for axial movement of the rod-shaped electrode, which mechanism has a lead screw, a lead nut, a return spring, a slider and a button, a means for vapour generation and for feeding a plasma-forming medium in the form of vapour of a liquid working medium into the discharge chamber, said means including a reservoir in the form of a thin-wall shell having an end-face wall, a flange and a connection pipe for supplying the liquid working medium, which reservoir being coaxially coupled to the housing and being filled with a liquid-absorbing material to enable the liquid-absorbing material to contact with the tubular electrode and to enable communication of the reservoir with the discharge chamber, a means for vortex stabilization of the electric arc, a means for cooling the nozzle and the rod-shaped electrode, a means for centering the rod-shaped electrode with respect to the through hole of the nozzle, current leads for electrical connection of terminals of an autonomous electric current source, and a protection enclosure (the Eurasian Patent No. 001829, 27.08.2001—the closest prior art and prototype).
This known burner has the following disadvantages:                temporal deterioration of the conveyance capabilities of the porous liquid-absorbing material in terms of providing inflow of the liquid working medium into the evaporation zone;        deterioration of heat exchange intensity in the evaporation zone with an increase in heat flow occurring due to an high thermal resistance of the heating element in the evaporation zone as the consequence of displacement of the liquid working medium off the heating surface of the heating element.        
In said burner, a film exists in the interior of the liquid-absorbing material's porous structure framework, which makes it difficult to withdraw the vapour, causes a destruction of the liquid-absorbing material structure, a degradation of the contact between the heating element and the liquid-absorbing material, and brings about a gap therebetween, so that ingress of a two-phase vapour-droplet mixture into the discharge chamber becomes possible.